Plug and Play Tech Center, a prominent Silicon Valley incubator, got operations underway in Russia last week with the selection of its first five Russian startups.
The launch projects, selected by a panel of Plug and Play judges, included Toytemic, a Moscow startup offering a “natural, intuitive method for linking virtual reality to the tactile world of toys,” Vite.Me, a social service connecting friends with a single button, ShopPoints, a mobile application offering rewards for visiting stores and delivering personalized special offers, Family Suite, an online service for the elderly, and Mtel, a virtual office project.
The startup entrepreneurs competing for collaboration with Plug and Play gave a ten minute pitch about their projects in English. The jury was headed by Saeed Amidi, Plug and Play founder and CEO. “Thanks to the opening of Plug and Play Russia, we can build a bridge between Russia and the Silicon Valley,” Amidi said. He added that, through Plug and Play, select Russian startups would get a platform to develop business globally.
This platform includes potential access to over 2,000 startups and 180 venture capital firms as well as a range of potential corporate partners and a wide customer database in the US and Europe.
The event also included a discussion on Russian startup success stories with the participation Sergey Belousov from Parallels, Ivan Nechayev from Russian Navigation Technologies and David Yang of ABBYY, three internationally renowned Russian high tech companies.
Ignored just a couple of years ago – with the exception of such pioneers as Mangrove and Ventech – the Russian startup market is gaining more and more attention from leading international investors. Among them are Garage Technology Ventures and Tomorrow Ventures, which signed strategic partnerships with Moscow incubator Digital October in April of this year. German e-Venture Capital Partners, Swedish Kinnevik and Intel Capital have invested in Fast Lane Ventures, a Moscow-based Western style incubator, along with Russian fund Russia Partners.
These and other funds have also invested directly in a number Russian startups since the beginning of the year.
Sources: RIA Novosti, Marchmont News
